Community Colleges and OPM Partnerships Are Key to America’s Workforce Future

By Rosa Mendoza | Founder, President and CEO, ALLvanza

This July, one of the most significant higher education reforms in decades officially took effect. The new Workforce Pell program now allows eligible students to use Pell Grants for high-quality, short-term workforce training programs, reshaping the options available to Americans pursuing postsecondary education. As students advance their studies in the fall, many will be among the first to benefit from this new opportunity. But Workforce Pell’s success will depend on whether colleges can quickly deliver flexible, career-focused programs that meet the needs of students and employers alike.

Public-private partnerships between community colleges and Online Program Managers (OPMs) can help meet that challenge, as discussed in our new ALLvanza study, “How Community College eLearning Partnerships Can Prepare Americans for the Future of Work.”

Community colleges have long been engines of opportunity, especially for working adults, first-generation students, and those seeking new careers. I know this firsthand. Growing up in a small town in Central Washington as a first-generation college student, access to affordable higher education opened doors that otherwise would not have existed. Yet too often, academic programs have struggled to keep pace with changing workforce needs, leaving graduates with credentials that don’t always translate into jobs.